Question : ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARANCE FOR PROJECTS

(a) the details of the proposals received regarding environmental clearances for various infrastructure and industrial projects during each of the last three years and the current year, State/ UT-wise;

(b) the details of the projects cleared so far along with the steps taken to clear all the pending proposals, State/UT-wise;

(c) whether there have been complaints of negligence in clearing the projects without consideration to environmental concerns and if so, the details thereof and the corrective action taken in this regard; and

(d) whether the Government proposes to put in place a more transparent and predictable system for environmental clearance in a time bound manner and if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT, FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE

(SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

(a) The State/ UT-wise details of proposals received in the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change seeking environmental clearances for setting up of infrastructure and industrial projects during each of the last three years and the current year are at Annexure-I.

(b) The details of infrastructure and industrial projects granted Environment Clearance during last three years and current year till 30th November, 2014 are at Annexure-I.

The Ministry has taken a number of initiatives for expediting the decision making in Environment Clearance process which include, (i) on-line submission of applications for grant of Term of Reference/ Environment Clearance, (ii) increased frequency of meetings of Expert Appraisal Committees for consideration of projects in different sectors, (iii) regular monitoring of the status of the pending projects, (iv) constitution of State / Union Territory level Environment Impact Assessment Authorities (SEIAAs) in 26 States/ UTs to deal with the Category ‘B’ projects, (v) guidelines for categorization of B Category projects into ‘B1’ & ‘B2’ category etc..

(c) & (d) The applications for grant of Environmental Clearance, for the category of projects as stated in the Schedule of Environmental Impact Assessment Notification 2006, are considered in the Ministry as per provisions of the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 2006 as amended from time to time. The EC process under the said notification aims at mainstreaming environmental issues in developmental process. Various streamlining decisions as stated above taken by the Government from time to time are with a view to facilitating timely and objective decision making without compromising the integrity of the environment. This Notification inter alia provides timelines for various stages of consideration of project proposals for grant of environment clearance.